Art Heroes Radio features conversations every Thursday evening with established and upcoming artists, creative professionals and experts in related fields. The focus of the show is advice for artists and creative entrepreneurs presented in a conversational format. Learn what works (and what doesn't) from artists and creatives who have pioneered new ways to build an arts career. The stories and ideas presented add up to an ongoing guide put together by and for people living and working in the arts. From business and marketing ideas, to discussions on how to cope with fame, fans or family, the show will cover all aspects of the artists' life. Learn how to grow, manage and maintain your arts career from those who've done it the hard way.

When I was growing up I wanted to be an artist, or maybe a superhero. And everyone was quick to tell me "people just don't do that in real life, that's all just stories and nonsense."

But my heroes were heroes, so I figured that's what I oughta do too. I think most of the time, what really makes a hero is having the balls to stand up and do it anyway, no matter what people tell you is possible. Of course, it helps to study how the artists and heroes before you managed to pull it off, and ultimately, that's what this show is about.

My goal with Art Heroes Radio is to help artists and entrepreneurs become heroes on their own terms.

Austin Kleon was my first guest on Art Heroes Radio and he's back this week to talk about his recent runaway hit How to Steal Like an Artist (and 9 other Things Nobody Told Me). When I first read How to Steal Like an Artist, it struck me as probably the best thing I'm likely to read this year— it's the kind of essay you don't see all that often that just nails it.

In the first part of the conversation we discuss some of the ramifications of having a piece take off so massively. I cut some of the technical details but left enough to give you an idea what happens when you get a major hit completely unexpectedly. The rest of the conversation expands on the essay and gives some of the back story for where the ideas came from.

Ever since I saw the first Common Craft video RSS in Plain English, I've been a huge fan of their work. The brilliance of Common Craft videos is that they explain complicated ideas in simple terms, usually in 3 minutes or less.

Explanation is often difficult for artists— whether talking about a single work, a collection, or even in terms of creating work that speaks clearly to the audience— So I wanted to get Lee LeFever's advice on how he and his wife Sachi find the simplest explanations for complex ideas. We also talked about how Common Craft videos are made, the scripting process, how a two person company scales (or doesn't) and the choices Lee and Sachi have made to intentionally remain small while growing their audience and their reach.

When it comes to movies, most of us "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." We follow the stars and often directors, but rarely does the producer of a film get to be in the spotlight.

But in many ways, the producer of a film is the one person most central to the creation— from choosing a screenplay, to hiring key personnel, to facilitating the millions of details large and small required to successfully coordinate a large number of creatives and technicians. Behind the scenes is a fascinating world where creativity, skill, structure and logistics all must work together to create the finished product. As an artist who's interested in how things are done, I've long wanted to see what I could learn from a film producer that might also apply to making and promoting other forms of art.

Dean Zanuck was the perfect guy to ask. With deep experience in both the studio system and the independent space, I felt that Dean gave a much more complete picture of the realities, process and passion of producing a major film. As the third generation of one of Hollywood's most successful and well know families, he grew up within the traditional Hollywood system, eventually working 13 years as Vice-President of Development at The Zanuck Company. But for his most recent film, Get Low, Dean chose to make his own name as an independent producer working without the net that a studio provides— the "army and infrastructure of people that deal with the nooks and crannies, all the trench-work and heavy-lifting."

We also talked about Dean's focus on original stories and narrative, and the idea of producing a career in the arts as though it were a Hollywood film.

Sinclair is a coach who helps creative entrepreneurs become unstoppable. She runs the blog Selfactivator.com, with fresh starts, business how-tos and creative process good stuff. She's a theater director, writer, aerialist, and neuro-science geek. I love the line in her bio that reads "My superpower is catching other people using their superpowers. It is the best job in the entire world."

Her latest kit Burnout to Bliss is for creatives recovering from
burnout, and to ramp up your creativity and make sure you don't hit
burnout again. Most artists are familiar with the burnout part of the creative cycle and maybe with recovering from burnout but I was especially interested to hear Sinclair's ideas on how to prevent it in the first place.

Artist Advisor Aletta de Wal is equal parts artist, educator and entrepreneur. She makes make art marketing easier by breaking it down to meet your goals and fit your time, energy and money. She provides templates and steps to follow that make the business side of art simpler.

Aletta is currently working on a new book My real job is being an artist (what you should know before you quit your day job or get one) expected out late this fall. I had a chance to read an advance chapter of the book on clichés and myths about the life, career and business of being an artist. These are the stories that can both draw people to the arts and at the same time prevent real success.

Lori McNee is a professional, nationally recognized working artist
& blogger. On her popular art blog, FineArtTips.com, Lori shares her
unique artistic perspective, art tips and art business, and Social
Media advice for her fellow artists. Lori currently ranks as one of the
"Most Influential Artists" on Twitter. Thanks to Social Media, Lori is
also a television hostess for the resort television station, Plum TV.

We had originally planned to do a two part show focusing on video marketing for artists as well as selling art on Facebook, but decided that Facebook would need more than half a show to cover. As a result, this week's show is shorter than usual but extremely targeted on using video to promote art.

The less your content looks like advertising, the better it functions
as advertising. People are more likely to link to it and share it. Artists are the specialists at producing original content
that people actually want, and this gives us an advantage even over
traditional marketers.

We can build our own platform to sell
our own stuff (the sexiest route), or partner with organizations to
create content that helps sell their stuff (as Hugh
MacLeod did with English Cut and Stormhoek).

Creating original, engaging, remarkable images, sounds, text, music or
video is what you do best. You're already a one-person media company.
Even if you hate the very idea of marketing, you should know that when
it comes to Internet marketing, your creativity gives you an unfair
advantage.

Christopher Ashworth makes software and theater in Baltimore, Maryland. His QLab software makes it simple to create rich multimedia designs for live performances and installations. Qlab has been used in high schools, colleges, Tony awards winning productions and the live audience and broadcast audio for the 2010 Olympic medal ceremonies. The diversity of venues is partly due to some really interesting ways that Chris has found to make his work accessible to a broad range of price points.

When I read Chris Ashworth's post My Competitive Advantage: I Hire Artists, I knew I had to get him on Art Heroes— he has stuff to say that you, as artists, should hear. His passion impressed me as much as his thinking.

Then I read Chris' post My 2 Bucks on Pricing on why he raised the price of his software by 500% at the request of his existing customers. Let me repeat that— His customers told him he wasn't charging them enough. Why? They wanted to continue using QLab and they wanted Chris to be able to sustain his business so he'd be there for them. Yeah, artists could learn from that too.

One of the most common questions I hear from artists is "How do I get my work into galleries?" The myth of being discovered is a wonderful bedtime story, but it provides little practical advice for how to get your work shown now.

As former director of a national gallery and creator of the portfoilio site, Fine Art Studio Online, Clint Watson has a great deal of experience to draw from on both sides of the gallery submission process. Clint's number one answer to how to get galleries to look at your work will probably surprise you. Learn which rules you can break and which rules you should break when submitting to galleries.

In this conversation Clint and I discuss:

How to research galleries.

How to find a gallery that is a good fit for your art.

How should you approach gallery owners?

What to include in a proposal to a new gallery and what not to worry about.

Common mistakes artists make when dealing with galleries.

What to expect from a gallery in terms of support and marketing.

How to effectively split marketing tasks with a gallery.

How to address selling your work directly when you also show in galleries.

How to protect yourself with a gallery contract and what items should be spelled out.

Public art projects offer both great opportunities and specific challenges for artists. While the budgets and opportunities for exposure of public art are extremely attractive, such large scale projects also require very specialized skills beyond purely artistic merit.

In this conversation, Jon Pounds, Executive Director of the Chicago Public Art Group, discusses the origins of contemporary public art, the principles of managing large scale and collaborative projects, current practices and design considerations, the value of balancing humility and ego when working with collaborators and communities, and how to get started in public art.

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I'm best known as an artist and designer. Relaxing makes me tense, so I tend to put in a lot of hours on diverse projects.

On the way to a successful art career I've been a poet and writer, a tech geek, a print and web designer, illustrator, industrial designer, musician, teacher, actor, set designer and even a paid guru once.

It's all the same thing in the end— I wake up most days thinking about how I want to change, fix or improve some aspect of the world. And after a couple cups of coffee I get started on it.

My specialty is impossibility remediation: if it can't be done, I'm on it.

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If you have a question for Art Heroes guests during the live show, ask me on twitter. Type @johntunger followed by your question and I'll try to work it in to the show. Tag twitter comments about the show with #ArtHeroes.